Tales out of school
Subtitle: gender, longing, and the teacher in fiction and film
By: Jo Keroes.
Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Carbondale
Language: eng
Number of pages: 164
Subjects: American fiction -- History and criticism.; Teacher-student relationships in literature.; English fiction -- History and criticism.; Teachers -- English-speaking countries.; Gender identity in literature.; Teachers in motion pictures.; Education in literature.; Authority in literature.; Teachers in literature.; Desire in literature.; Gender identity in motion pictures.
Description: Jo Keroes's scope is wide: she examines the teacher as represented in fiction and film in works ranging from the twelfth-century letters of Abelard and Heloise to contemporary films such as Dangerous Minds and Educating Rita. And from the twelfth through the twentieth century, Keroes shows, the teaching encounter is essentially erotic.

Tracing the roots of eros from cultural as well as psychological perspectives, Keroes defines erotic in terms broader than the merely sexual. She analyzes ways in which teachers serve as convenient figures on whom to map conflicts about gender, power, and desire.

To show how portrayals of men and women differ, even in situations that are very much alike, she examines pairs of texts, using a film or a novel with a woman protagonist (Up the Down Staircase, for example) as counterpoint to one featuring a male teacher (Blackboard Jungle) or The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie balanced against Dead Poets Society.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 149-155) and index.